Friday, October 10, 2008

Make all Virginians rich enough to be taxed more by Obama

For the price of the Iraq War, we could make everybody in Virginia rich enough to have a portion of their taxes increased by Barack Obama.

Barack Obama plans to raise taxes on income over $250,000 per year. Whether people in this bracket experience a net tax increase under his plan will depend on their overall tax situation. The population of Virginia is 7.7 million. Giving all Virginians $250,000 to raise them to the tax bracket where they'd experience some portion of Obama's tax increases would require $1.93 trillion, which is less than Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes' estimate of $3 trillion for the total cost of the Iraq War.

2 comments:

I think the math might be suspect on this one. I think you got $1.61 trillion by multiplying 7.7 million people by the $209,000 that is the average amount per person below the $250,000 threshold.

Adding that $1.61 trillion would put enough money into Virginia to raise the average income to $250,000, but, since some people already make more than $250,000, it won't be enough to bring *every* person above the line, unless you're also redistributing the wealth of those who are already above the line.

Of course, the correct total will still be well under $3 trillion, since one could give an *additional* $250,000 to every individual for some $1.93 trillion.